Dreamgirls

Three young women, Deena Jones, Effie White and Lorrell Robinson desire to become pop stars. They get their wish when they are picked to be backup singers for the legendary James "Thunder" Early. When they are set free for leads, Curtis Taylor and Effie's brother C.C. decide that Deena should be the lead singer, which upsets Effie. The girls discover exactly what it takes to be in the music business and what they must give up to realize their dreams.

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Thinly veiled biopic of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard aka the legendary Supremes, the premier Girl Group of the 1960s, and their mentor-Svengali Berry Gordy, titan of Motown. It's not their story of course, and yet of course in a way it is. (But oh, if only the tragic Florence could have risen like a phoenix from the ashes the way Effie does so triumphantly here.)
Effie White, Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson are the Dreamettes, a talented singing trio barely out of their teens and eager to make it in the Big Time. At a talent show contest they should have won they encounter a slick car salesman named Curtis Jackson, a man with big showbiz ambitions of his own. Curtis fast-talks his way into becoming the girls' manager, pairing them (and Effie's aspiring songwriter brother, C.C.) with a brash soul shouter named James "Thunder" Early whose best days are probably behind him, in the process sidelining Early's manager, Marty Madison. There are wonderfully staged musical numbers (including one of the most entertaining closing montages I've ever seen) and transitions that move the Dreamettes' rather clichéd rags to riches story forward in style and the cast is excellent.

Queen Bey is better than expected as the shy Deena, the Not-Diana-Ross-But-Come-On-Who-Are-We-Kidding character who is chosen over the explosively gifted, zaftig, and unapologetically black Effie to front the group (mirroring the real-life changeover engineered by Gordy for Ross). And just to up the dramatic ante, the slender, photogenic Deena also steals from Effie the affections of Curtis (the Not-Berry-Gordy-But-etc. character).
Jamie Foxx is all sharp angles as the fiercely ambitious and more than a little shady Curtis; he cares for Effie, but not nearly so much as he wants the high life he's always envisioned for himself.
Anika Noni Rose (who wonderfully sings/voices the Tiana character in Disney's "The Princess and the Frog") holds her own nicely as the girlish, naïve Lorrell, too thrilled to be a part of a successful team to make waves even if she doesn't like what she sees happening to a good friend. Lorrell tries but can't resist the sly, very married Jimmie Early; Eddie Murphy on fire in the definitive role of his career. Rounding out this powerhouse cast is actor's actor Danny Glover, statesman-like as Marty, James's world-weary manager.

Watching Dreamworks’ Dreamgirls is a cultural experience of its own. The most expensive movie to date, to have a star-studded all African-American cast: Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy and Jessica Hudson, to name a few, is the product of decades of attempts to adapt the successful, award-winning Broadway show into a film. As a movie, some might argue that the plot and characters were rather too simple and left much wanting in the way of tension and surprise. The movie follows the changes and upheavals that trail a group of young female performers as they navigate success and fame. Like almost every movie focusing on a musician or musical group, the clichéd search for a true ‘sound’ was one of its themes. Naturally, this was tied to the struggle of the characters to define themselves as artists with a message in eventual direct defiance to the attempts of their record labels to commercialize their music in sacrifice of what they were trying to say. As a musical, Dreamgirls, was a top notch effort. With emotional numbers like ‘And I am Telling You I’m Not Going’ and ‘Listen’, the actors resonate with the audience in telling their story.
3/5 stars.
- @TheEccentric of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library

Jennifer Hudson character Effie was the star of this movie. She went through personal setbacks with those close around her. She finally overcame those hurdles to be the person that God wanted her to be. Jamie Foxx character Curtis Taylor was very deceitful and manipulative towards everyone that he had dealings with. And Beyonce Knowles character Denna finally woke up at the end to realize that money and fame wasn't all there was to life!!!

ilianna123
Jun 23, 2012

i love this movie i will never forget this movie for the rest of my life lol

MEEMEE352
Nov 21, 2011

michelle walker

were the dream girl dream girls will never leave you no no all we have to do is dream will be there yeah were the dream girls.

I liked the begining of the movie where everything's going great for the original three girls but when everyone starts picking on Effie and it's revealed how much of jerk Curtis (Jamie Foxx) becomes later on. It just sunk for me. I hated how they dumped Effie and brought in a new girl and lied how was she in with them in begining for the public after cutting Effie. The movie had a good start off but drops in the middle and wasn't really good.(Too many people picking on each other)

Summary

Detroit, the early 1960s. Curtis Taylor, Jr., a car salesman, breaks into the music business with big dreams. He signs a trio of 18-year-olds, the Dreamettes, gets them a job backing an R&B performer, James "Thunder" Early, establishes his own record label and starts wheeling and dealing. When Early flames out, Curtis makes the Dreamettes into headliners as the Dreams, but not before demoting their hefty big-voiced lead singer, Effie White, and putting the softer-voiced looker, Deena Jones, in front. Soon after, he fires Effie, sends her into a life of proud poverty, and takes Deena and the Dreams to the top. How long can Curtis stay there, and will Effie ever get her due?